Balinese Character (Signed Deluxe Second Edition)

Rare presentation copy dedicated to anthropologist and photographer Charles P. Mountford from co-author Margaret Mead on front free end paper, with signature.

Deluxe second edition, limited to 2000 copies. New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1942. 4to. Original cream cloth hardcover with Balinese illustration on cover in brown. Lettering on spine in brown. Pages: xvi, 277.

Bound in original publisher's cream cloth. Illustration to cover blocked in black. Lettering to spine in black.

Very good. Bindings sound, square, and tight. Some age markings and foxing present on covers and spine. One dark blemish to front cover. Contents very good, very slight age toning throughout, some minor foxing near upper edge. Images and plates retain their original quality. Overall, a fantastic copy of a ground-breaking cultural work with unique provenance.

A ground-breaking 1942 anthropological work that pioneered the use of photography as a primary research tool in cultural anthropology. The book presents their study of Balinese culture through an innovative combination of photographs and analytical text.

Based on fieldwork conducted in Bali during the 1930s, the work examines Balinese social behaviour, child-rearing practices, religious ceremonies, and interpersonal relationships through carefully documented photographic sequences. Rather than using photographs merely as illustrations, Bateson and Mead treated them as data, analysing body language, facial expressions, spatial relationships, and social interactions captured in thousands of images.

Provenance: Charles Pearcy Mountford OBE (1890-1976) was an Australian anthropologist and photographer. He is known for his pioneering work on Indigenous Australians and his depictions and descriptions of their art. Particularly, his works such as Brown Men, Red Sand, played an integral role in advancing knowledge of Indigenous Australian culture both within and beyond the Anthropological fields. Mountford gained renown for the empathetic and respectful manner in which he and his work treated Indigenous Australians. He also led the famous 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land.

A host of Mountford's works and photography remain on display at the State Library of South Australia.

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This book is currently not on display in store.

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